


Outside the bounds of "normal"

by ToTheStarsWriting



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood Deserves Nice Things, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Asexual Discrimination, Awesome Magnus Bane, Discrimination, I don't support discrimination, It happens, Jace is going to make sure he gets them, M/M, Magnus is a nice thing, Multi, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, Protective Jace Wayland, Queer Themes, Queerplatonic Alec Lightwood & Jace Wayland, Queerplatonic Relationships, Shy Alec Lightwood, Supportive Jace Wayland, a comment by one or two, briefly, but not everyone is kind, no magic, talk of discrimination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:20:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28514076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToTheStarsWriting/pseuds/ToTheStarsWriting
Summary: He should’ve known better. College was just as bad as high school, if not worse. Because people here were discovering their freedom, yes – so long as it fit within the bounds of what they’d been told was okay. You were free to be different just so long as you weren’t too different. So long as you kept it in the defined bounds of what the simple minded could understand.College didn’t turn out to be the getaway Alec had hoped it would be. Instead of feeling free, he mostly just felt so damn tired of everyone always making the wrong assumptions about his relationship with his long time best friend and partner, Jace Herondale. Or, worse, trying to label them. Usually with labels that didn't even work.No one seemed to understand it. Understand them.Not until Alec meets a beautiful man at work who seems to have no issues seeing through all of that - straight to Alec.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood & Jace Wayland, Jace Wayland/Other(s), Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood & Jace Wayland
Comments: 36
Kudos: 210





	Outside the bounds of "normal"

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a fluffy little thing I wrote after talking to some friends in Discord about Jace and Alec in a QPR, and what that might look like for them, and for Malec. So, here you go! A quick blurb I wrote in an afternoon.

Being a young gay man in college was supposed to be a liberating experience. That was what Alexander Lightwood had heard, at least. People were more open-minded there, more liberal.

He’d had high hopes that maybe being in college, being in such a _liberal_ environment, might make some parts of his life easier. That maybe he’d find a place where, for once, he didn’t have to try and explain things that seemed so simple to him.

He should’ve known better. College was just as bad as high school, if not worse. Because people here were discovering their freedom, yes – so long as it fit within the bounds of what they’d been told was _okay_. You were free to be different just so long as you weren’t _too_ different. So long as you kept it in the defined bounds of what the simple-minded could understand.

College didn’t turn out to be the getaway Alec had hoped it would be. Instead of feeling free, he mostly just felt so damn tired of everyone always making the wrong assumptions about his relationship with his long time best friend and partner, Jace Herondale. Or, worse, trying to _label_ them. Usually with labels that didn't even work.

What they had, it was theirs, and it drove Alec insane that people felt the need to come in and stick their noses in it like it was in any way their business.

It made Jace laugh, of course. He was the type of person to find things like that funny. "Who cares what they think?" he'd point out time and time again. Then he'd flop down on top of Alec on their shared bed in their dorm and grin as Alec grumbled and pretended not to like it. If he was feeling particularly funny or loving, he'd kiss Alec's cheek while he was there, loud and smacking in that way he knew drove him crazy. "I love you, and you love me, and fuck the rest of them, right?"

Alec tried to follow that. Seriously, he did. But it was kind of hard to remember that when he had to sit through yet another "Alec, we love you, you deserve better than this" speech from someone who saw Jace at a bar, or a club, or going home with some guy or girl. It didn't matter how many times he insisted Jace wasn't cheating on him, that this wasn't how their relationship worked, people still didn't get it.

"Okay, I get that you're not having sex. More power to you," Raj said, wrinkling his nose in that way that meant he didn't really understand it, but he was going to just ignore it. "But like... isn't it still cheating for him to go out and sleep with someone else while you two are... do you call it dating?"

Six months after that, Raj still tried to quickly go the other way when he saw Alec coming at him down the halls. It made Jace and Isabelle both laugh.

There were conversations Alec knew he wasn’t a part of, ones that happened on Jace’s side of things. Because for as many people as there were that worried about Jace cheating on Alec, and how Alec deserved _better than that_ – as if Jace wasn’t perfect for him just the way he was – there were just as many people who were convinced that _Jace_ could do better. People who accused Alec of being cold, frigid, too closed-off to keep his partner.

The one time someone had been dumb enough to say it to his face was the last. Not because of Alec’s response, though. No, because of _Jace’s._

It’d been some stupid freshman who thought that the night he’d spent with Jace meant they were dating, and who publicly came at Alec _at his work_. He’d called Alec all sorts of things, about how stupid he was to not recognize a good thing when he had it. It wasn’t the first time Alec had heard that, and he hadn’t really cared. But it’d pissed him off when the guy had sneered and demanded to know if he was one of those “asexual freaks or whatever. What, daddy touched you wrong and now you can’t get it up for anyone else?”

The other insults were enough to roll right off Alec’s back. But that one – that one had left Alec livid.

He hadn’t even realized that Jace had come in – that he’d bailed on class and booked it across the campus when Isabelle called to let him know someone was shouting at Alec in the coffee shop – until his sharp “What the _fuck_?” echoed through the coffee shop.

Three punches later, Alec had Jace restrained, someone had dragged the freshman out of there, and everyone on campus learned not to insult Alec. Ever.

“You know, the rumors probably wouldn’t be so bad if you actually went out and hooked up with anyone,” Isabelle pointed out to Alec that night when they’d all curled up in the boys’ dorm room.

Jace had saved Alec from trying to point out, yet again, that his relationships were his own business. He’d huffed from where he was holding on to Alec, leaning back into the corner of the couch. He hadn’t let Alec more than three feet from him since they’d come back home. “Why should we care what anyone thinks?” he asked Isabelle bluntly. “If we’re happy with it, it shouldn’t matter what anyone else says.”

* * *

It wasn’t that Alec _didn’t_ want to sleep with anyone else. He found people attractive. But why should he bother trying for something with someone who was never going to understand his already existing relationship? If he got hard up enough, he had his hand and a toy collection that Jace had given him for Christmas. That was enough to get him by.

Jace had long since stopped teasing Alec about it. “If you’re happy, that’s what matters to me, Alec. I don’t care about the rest of it.”

That wasn’t to say he wouldn’t nudge Alec every now and again. Like he did every single time the gorgeous sophomore transfer came in the coffee shop.

“He totally flirts with you every single time he’s there,” Jace insisted firmly one afternoon when he came by to pull Alec out for lunch. It wasn’t something they did often – they had dinner together almost every night. But a week of shitty work shifts and study sessions and overdue papers had left them with little time to do more than just fall into bed together and sleep. So Jace had swung by to surprise Alec with lunch from Olive Garden because he was a fantastic partner who did all those little thoughtful things no one would believe he would think about.

For his part, Alec was more than content to just sit there and enjoy that feeling of being spoiled a little. He had a plate of chicken fettuccini and breadsticks on the table in front of him, Jace’s foot hooked around his under the table, and it was a nice day. He definitely didn’t want to be thinking about the gorgeous customer who came in every day and who very much was _not_ flirting with him.

Magnus was… he was beautiful, in that carefree way that said that yes, he took time with how he looked, but it wasn’t for _you_. The dark colors, the bold fabrics, the thick eyeliner and occasional glitter, and jewelry that could’ve belonged to Lords an Ladies hundreds of years ago. It was a look that shouldn’t have worked and yet somehow did.

Whatever look was on Alec’s face had Jace laughing out loud. He tilted his foot and tapped it against Alec’s calf. “You’re so blind sometimes. He’s been flirting with you for _weeks_.”

“Even if he was, which he’s _not_ ,” Alec said firmly, glaring just to make sure his point sank in. “It wouldn’t matter anyway.”

“Why not?”

Scowling, Alec dropped his glare down to his foot. He stabbed aggressively at a bit of chicken. “You know why.”

The way that Jace sighed made it clear he _did_ know what Alec meant while simultaneously showing his frustration with it. With anyone else, Alec might’ve thought that frustration was for _him_. People called him stubborn for a reason. Very few ever paid enough attention to realize that it was insecurity that kept Alec from reaching out to these things. There were some days he still didn’t quite believe that he’d managed to get what he had with Jace. The idea of risking fate enough to ask for it again, with someone else? Alec wasn’t worth that.

“You deserve to be happy, Alec.”

Those firm, steady words warmed Alec straight down to the core. He looked across the table at the reason that Alec knew he would always be happy. “I am.” How could he be anything but? Sex was fun, yes, and Alec wanted to enjoy it, but that didn’t mean he felt his life was in any way lacking just because he didn’t have any. So long as he had Jace, he was always going to be happy.

The way Jace smiled at him with just that little hint of shyness at the edges was enough to let Alec know that message had been received. He loved being able to make Jace smile like that. To be able to reach past the walls the man put up and remind him that he was enough just the way he was. It was a lesson Alec had been trying to teach him since the moment those two first met. One that he would happily spend a lifetime reinforcing.

Of course, Alec should’ve remembered that he wasn’t the only protective one in the relationship and that Jace was never the type to just let something go. Especially when it came to Alec’s well-being and happiness.

The two went back into the coffee shop together with their arms around one another and bright smiles on their faces. Just being able to spend some time together where they weren’t rushing to finish so they could go to one thing or another was enough to ease both of their tension. Alec relaxed into the arm around his waist, and he even curled his arm around Jace’s shoulders in return.

What Alec expected was for Jace to walk him back inside, maybe steal a hug or a kiss or whatever he was in the mood for, and then head off to his classes. What he _wasn’t_ expecting was for Jace to tug him out toward the customers and right over toward the table in the corner where the beautiful, fashionable, _popular_ Magnus Bane was sitting by himself, drinking tea and staring out the window.

Just when Alec would’ve started to dig his heels in and try to stop whatever the hell Jace had planned, his partner gave him one last yank forward, and the choice was either walk or crash into customers. Alec stumbled against Jace’s side, clinging to his shoulders so that he didn’t end up falling, and Jace easily caught him.

They’d come to a stop together right alongside Magnus’ table. Alec had no idea what was supposed to happen here, what Jace was going to do, but he could feel how his cheeks were already going red before Jace even had a chance to speak. He just, he knew it was going to be bad, and there was no time for him to stop Jace from whatever plan he’d clearly crafted.

Magnus turned to look at them, and the smile that lit up his face at the sight of Alec was unfairly gorgeous, though Alec saw it dim slightly when his eyes ran over the hold the two of them had on one another.

“Hey,” Jace said, grinning broadly at him. That same charming smile that made him one of the most popular kids on campus. “So, as you probably already know, I’m Jace, and this here is my partner, Alec.” Then, before Magnus could speak, Jace’s grin grew wider, and he used his arm to nudge Alec forward a little. “We’re in a queerplatonic relationship, which means I love the hell out of this guy, and he loves me, but we’re open to seeing other people who’re willing to respect that.”

Mortification had Alec shoving a sharp elbow into Jace’s ribs even as he hissed out a furious “ _Jace!_ ” that did nothing whatsoever to shut Jace up. It’d never worked in the past, and Alec saw no reason for it to start working now.

The soft, husky sound of Magnus’ laughter was enough to have Alec ducking. He curled inward and mentally prepared himself to deal with this now. Later, he would kill Jace for putting him in the situation to begin with, knowing how Alec felt and knowing just how people tended to react.

Only – Magnus didn’t react the way he expected. Magnus _never_ seemed to do what Alec expected. He didn’t mock them or demand to know if this was some joke or say any of the usual hurtful things that people never seemed to realize were hurtful. In fact, what he said was a simple “That sounds lovely,” that stole Alec’s breath and left him gaping rather unattractively.

Jace grinned back at him. “I think so.” Then he turned, cupped Alec’s face long enough to tug him in for a kiss, and then he pressed their foreheads together. “You got this, Alec.”

With that, Jace drew back and took hold of Alec’s shoulders so he could steer him forward and practically shove him down into the chair across from Magnus. “He’s got about seven minutes before he’s back on shift. You manage to break him in that time, an I’m gonna come find you and break you later,” Jace told Magnus cheerfully. He ruffled Alec’s hair and gave one last “Love you, see you tonight!” and he was gone.

Which left Alec and Magnus sitting together at the table with pretty much every single person in the coffee shop watching them. People who had seen Alec turn down flirtation after flirtation. Who’d watched when Jace beat the shit out of that freshman who’d dared to insult Alec. They’d seen the most of the boys’ relationship and still hadn’t managed to understand them. This was only going to confuse them even more.

Magnus, however, didn’t seem the least bit confused. In fact, he kind of looked like Christmas had come early. His golden-brown eyes were lit up, and he was smiling brighter than Alec had ever seen. Yet all he said was, “Hello, Alexander.”

Oh, angel, Alec was going to die of embarrassment, and then he was going to go home tonight and _murder_ his partner. “Um… hey. I’m, uh, I’m sorry about Jace.”

Somehow Magnus’ smile grew impossibly wider. “On the contrary. I was beginning to believe I’d lost out on any chance with you. Your partner has restored my hope.”

“We’re not into threesomes,” Alec blurted out, because that was often where people’s minds went. They saw the two together, and even if Alec or Jace said they were in a queer _platonic_ relationship, somehow that seemed to translate to others as, _hey, we’re up for a super hot threesome!_ Which, no, absolutely not. Sex between him and Jace wasn’t ever going to happen.

Magnus chuckled at Alec’s statement. “That’s absolutely fine. While your partner is attractive, I find myself far more partial to tall men with dark hair, who look perpetually grumpy but are secretly teddy bears.” He winked when Alec looked up at him. “It’s a weakness of mine.”

Slowly, hesitantly, Alec found himself smiling back, just a little. “I’m not looking for a one-night stand.”

“Neither am I,” Magnus said easily.

The smile Alec wore grew a little, and he found himself sitting up straight for the first time since Jace had shoved him down into the chair. Magnus was saying all the right things, acting like this was just _normal_ , and oh, how Alec wanted to believe that he meant it.

 _You’ve got this_ , Jace had said, and whether it was true or not, the knowledge that Jace had faith in him – and that he would be there when Alec came home, no matter how this went – gave Alec the courage to finally reach out for something for himself. Something he’d been so sure he wasn’t going to be able to have. He looked at Magnus, this beautiful man who had something warm coming to life in his chest, and Alec found the courage to say, “I uh, I have to go back to work, but I get off at four. Would you like to go get something to eat afterward?”

The way that Magnus just _lit up_ at that was worth every chance Alec was taking here. “I’d love that.”

Maybe, just maybe, sometimes things were worth taking a risk for. Maybe whatever angels were watching over them really did answer prayers sometimes.

* * *

Six months later, when the three came back for another year of college, they did so in one large off-campus apartment with two extra bedrooms in it. One for Jace when he wanted to bring someone home or sleep by himself, one for guests, and one room with a massive custom-ordered bed that Isabelle had happily used their parents’ money to buy for them for Christmas. It was long enough for even Alec’s height, and wide enough to house all three of them with plenty of room.

People on campus already had plenty of rumors about Jace and Alec, and Alec just knew it would be worse this year. The general public barely understood the meaning of a queerplatonic relationship and were only tolerably accepting of two men being together at all. The unique dynamics of their three-way-relationship was only going to confuse them.

But as Alec leaned against the wall and watched the way that Magnus and Jace bickered over where to put the desk, and “No, absolutely not, I’m not having any of that weird incense crap in our bedroom, Magnus, don’t you dare!” well…

Alec could put up with all of it. Just so long as this was what he got to come home to every day.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading - be sure to let me know what you think!
> 
> If you'd like to join a Multifandom server on Discord, come hang out [HERE](https://discord.gg/82pvdE39fD) in the Fandom Playhouse with me and a group of amazing people!
> 
> Also, though I'm rarely on there, you can find me on tumblr [HERE](https://to-the-stars-writing.tumblr.com/) and say hi, send an ask, or even leave me a prompt if you'd like :)


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